Thank you Mod. Sorry about that.
Oxytocin-enforced
norm
compliance
reduces
xenophobic
outgroup
rejection
Nina Marsh
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Helmholtz Association, 53175 Bonn, Germany
Edited by Bruce S. McEwen, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, and approved July 10, 2017 (received for review April 7, 2017)
Never before have individuals had to adapt to social environments
defined by such magnitudes of ethnic diversity and cultural differ-
entiation. However, neurobiological evidence informing about strate-
gies to reduce xenophobic sentiment and foster altruistic cooperation
with outsiders is scarce. In a series of experiments settled in the
context of the current refugee crisis, we tested the propensity of 183
Caucasian participants to make donations to people in need, half of
whom were refugees (outgroup) and half of whom were natives
(ingroup). Participants scoring low on xenophobic attitudes exhibited
an altruistic preference for the outgroup, which further increased after
nasal delivery of the neuropeptide oxytocin. In contrast, participants
with higher levels of xenophobia generally failed to exhibit enhanced
altruism toward the outgroup. This tendency was only countered by
pairing oxytocin with peer-derived altruistic norms, resulting in a 74%
increase in refugee-directed donations. Collectively, these findings
reveal the underlying sociobiological conditions associated with
outgroup-directed altruism by showing that charitable social cues co-
occurring with enhanced activity of the oxytocin system reduce the
effects of xenophobia by facilitating prosocial behavior toward
refugees.